Monday, July 10, 2006

For those of you who care, I just put some of my old articles back up on my webpage. Whoop-dee-frikkin'-doo, right? But there they are. So stop whining about it.

Also, remember that our Zazen class in Santa Monica which would normally be held on Saturday July 22, has been changed to SUNDAY JULY 23rd AT 1:30 PM. That's SUNDAY AFTERNOON and not Saturday morning. So both of you who are thinking of showing up and doing Zazen rather than spending your day making obnoxious comments on blogs, please take note. THANKS!

I don't really see him being cranky or obnoxiouos. Come on folks, we've all seen the unPC pic that made all of you laugh..."arguing on the internet is a bit like the special olympics??????????" I think it applies x2 when we talk about zen

it did say dont click if you're easily offended..... it's kind of like a sign saying 'dont push this button if you dont want to receive an electric shock that some may find overtly painful' big red button just sitting there all big and red.... someone comes along, reads the sign pushes the button and then complains when they get an electric shock. yeh....

"how ever hard you try you will still be american."

it's so lame the way english people have this superiority complex when it comes to the americans.

it's always like

' americans are fat and stupid'

so is britain. we're the second fattest country in the world and our state schools are awful resulting in legions of stupid teenagers doing stupid crap all over the country

'america always starts wars'

british empire anyone? we're in iraq as well remember.

'bush is an arsehole'

blair is just as much of an arsehole. you could argue he's more of an arsehole since he's supposedly the head of the centre left party. bush is at least being consistent with his party's values.

and so on.

everything you can accuse america of doing or being, 9 times out of 10 applies just as much to england.

sorry for that rant but it really pisses me off when people use 'american' as an insult.i'm english and my girlfriend's a texan living in england. u can imagine the crap she has to deal with.

now all we need is for someone to point out that i'm stupid for saying its stupid to argue on the internet while at the same time being stupid and arguing on the internet. something like

" i find it ironic/ it's sad that you all can't see how stupid YOU all are by saying its stupid to argue on the internet and at the same time arguing on the internet... i'm far more wise than all of you clowns put together and you can all go suck my balls (that last part is the hidden message of what they are saying you see) "

of course by saying something like this the person immediately falls prey to the very same criticism he has just levelled at everyone else. the first person to come along and say something like this wins a prize. contact me for details.

"When Brad, my junior by many years, devoted a post on his blog to mocking and insulting me as Mr. Angry, I could not stop myself from reacting emotionally. This may have been a kind of political suicide."This was a post written by Mike Cross in one of the old comments sections of Dogen Sangha blog.How can Brad and others not see that Brad himself played a large part in fanning the flames of Mr. Cross' anger?I could probably post video of Brad beating down old ladies and people would find ways to defend him.

I like that video...funnyJules, I'm not totally obsessed. Just bored. I harp on things when I'm bored.Plus, I hate illogical, bullshit explanations. And so far nobody can answer the fundamental question I have posited to Brad. So I just keep on saying it.There is no good reason.

Yo G, I suppose you could be right about boredom.. I don’t know.. I have kind of the opposite problem. But shouldn‘t we try to be non-harming in our casual human interactions? We should at least be aware of the possibility of doing harm. If you are just bored, out looking for self-stimulation, you might not care whom you piss off, or hurt, or confuse, as long as you excite yourself. I guess it is just a matter of awareness. I need to practice this.

Oxeye,If by opposite problem, you mean that you are hyperactive or something, I maintain that this also is a result of boredom and unconsciousness. We stimulate ourselves (speaking for myself here) into a state of hyperactivity and it is only when we face the moment that we deal with restlessness and boredom full on.As for trying to be nonharming, I think there is cause and effect. I try to behave in ways that dont hurt myself or others very much. Paying attention naturally allows me to see this cause and effect more.I take the internet stuff pretty lightly, as do most people, but there is no question that I have felt some negative repercussions from my angry, sarcastic interactions over the internet (namely anxiety, annoyance, fear, anger).But I dont feel the need to reign myself in and force something. I still have a need to engage in this crap for some reason. I dont think its healthy.But there are so many things I do that are unhealthy, this is the least of my worries.

The funny thing when I learned about the Buddhist precept "Do not disparage others" is that I realized that I couldn't disparage people for disparaging people. It sure cut down on my social conversation. I can hardly say anything about politics these days.